Halliwell Hall

Halliwell Heights, on Church Road, facing Harper's Lane, stands where Halliwell Hall once did. Much of the information available on Halliwell Hall is contained in the diary of Roger Dewhurst, who lived there between 1716 & 1806 and was virtually the Squire of Halliwell during the last part of the 18^th Century. He was a magistrate, treasurer of the Bolton & Nightingale Turnpike Trust, (which was responsible for the upkeep of Chorley Old Road and Halliwell Road), a civil engineer, and an artist. Dewhurst kept diaries and although most of them have been lost, we have those for the years 1784 to 1786. He lived to a good age of around 89 years.  

Notes on Halliwell Hall, written in 1968

Very little is known of the history of the Hall, but according to a Mr. Butler, who once lived in the centre portion, the original building must have been at least 300 years old. Roger Dewhurst (the elder) purchased the Hall and its estate in 1715, a year before his son's birth and lived there until his death in 1728. Roger Dewhurst the younger, the celebrated captain, lived there until his death in 1806, when the Hall was inherited by James Dewhurst later disposed of it to an agent of Richard Ainsworth, and Ainsworth then sold it to Hardcastle. Hardcastle gave it to Peter Ormrod, a cotton mill owner and banker, who married his daughter, and virtually rebuilt the hall in the mid 19^th Century. (He also paid for the rebuilding of Bolton Parish Church, which was reopened in 1871). Halliwell Hall was also owned by T.H. Rushton, a governing director of Dobson & Barlow Ltd. and, for a time, Edward Thwaites, a bleacher, who died in 1911.